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Reasons to Add NextEra Energy (NEE) to Your Portfolio Now

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NextEra Energy’s (NEE - Free Report) strong investment plan, robust renewable backlog, contributions from organic and inorganic assets, and strong infrastructure efficiently serving its expanding customer base are contributing to its strong performance.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 earnings per share is pegged at $2.88, suggesting an increase of 12.9% from the year-ago reported figure. The bottom-line estimate has moved up 1.4% in the past 60 days.

The consensus mark for 2023 earnings is pegged at $3.11 per share, suggesting a 7.8% year-over-year increase. The bottom-line estimate has moved up 1.6% in the past 60 days.

Surprise History, Dividend Yield and Earnings Growth

NextEra Energy’ trailing four-quarter earnings surprise is 5.5%, on average.

Its dividend yield is currently pegged at 1.92%, which is much better than the S&P 500 group’s average of 1.61%.

Long-term (three to five years) earnings growth of the company is projected at 9.3%.

Regular Investments

NextEra Energy aims to invest $85-$95 billion from 2022 through 2025 to strengthen its infrastructure to provide efficient power and energy services across various states. NextEra Energy Resources, a unit of NextEra Energy, continues to work on its strategy of making a long-term investment in clean energy assets. The company expects to add 27-37 gigawatts of new renewables in 2022-2025 to the generation portfolio via clean energy investments.

Courtesy of persistent renewable asset additions to the generation portfolio and execution across all business segments, NextEra Energy expects to witness a compound annual growth rate of more than 10% for earnings per share through 2025 from the 2021 reported adjusted EPS of $2.55.

Return on Equity (ROE) & Debt Management

ROE is a measure of a company’s financial performance and shows how it is utilizing its funds. NextEra Energy’s ROE is currently pegged at 11.97%, better than the industry average of 10.38%, which indicates that the company is utilizing its funds more efficiently than peers.

NextEra Energy has been managing debt effectively and has top-tier credit ratings, ranging from A- to Baa1, from all major rating agencies. Its times interest earned (TIE) ratio at the second-quarter end was 4.2. The strong TIE ratio indicates that the firm will be able to meet debt obligations in the near future without any difficulties.

Price Performance

Over the past six months, the stock has returned 14.2% compared with the industry’s 11% rally.

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks in the same sector are The Southern Company (SO - Free Report) , Sempra Energy (SRE - Free Report) , and WEC Energy Group (WEC - Free Report) , each currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2.

Southern Company, Sempra Energy and WEC Energy delivered average earnings surprises of 9.4%, 4.4% and 7.6%, respectively, in the last four quarters.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 earnings per share of SO, SRE and WEC has moved up 2.3%, 1.5% and 0.5%, respectively, in the past 60 days.

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